Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen has expressed surprise that the stewards opted not to take action against Max Verstappen, after accusing the Red Bull driver of defending too robustly during their battle for fifth place in Hungary.
HUN RACE 28
He moved right and then back to left when I was going there and took my f****** front wing off!
Kimi Raikkonen
The duo collided on the 57th lap, with Raikkonen losing part of his front wing against the rear of Verstappen’s car. Subsequent passing attempts were also rebuffed strongly by the Dutchman, prompting Raikkonen to complain angrily over team radio about Verstappen making more than one change of line whilst defending.
After the race, Raikkonen re-emphasised his point, saying: “It's not for me to decide but I think that his manoeuvres are questionable.
"The first time he started to move on the right and I went left, but he moved back there too, so I had to try and get out of it because I was hitting him hard on the rear and I lost my front wing, which didn't make it easier to attack again.
“Then later, every time I managed to make a move and I was committed to somewhere he decided to turn afterwards, and at that point I had nowhere to go.
“It's not my job to determine if he was correct or not, but I have seen people being penalised for much less.”
For his part, Verstappen said he didn’t believe he had done anything wrong: “I only moved once. It would be very strange if I get penalised I think. I could see him coming so he was very optimistic to dive up the inside. He locked up and hit the rear of my car, which can happen.”
With Verstappen staying ahead of Raikkonen, and Daniel Ricciardo beating the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel to third, Red Bull picked up 25 points to the Scuderia’s 20 in Hungary, cutting the deficit to their Italian rivals in the constructors’ standings to just one point.
